


Stretching

by j_s_cavalcante



Category: due South
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-03
Updated: 2010-02-03
Packaged: 2017-10-07 00:00:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/59151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/j_s_cavalcante/pseuds/j_s_cavalcante
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>...in which both Fraser and I stretch beyond our respective comfort zones, and Ray just stretches. :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stretching

**Author's Note:**

  * For [akamine_chan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/akamine_chan/gifts).



  
“Come on, Fraser, you know you want to.”

Ray was lying full length on his sofa, his bare feet hanging over one end and his head resting on the other, his long, lean body clad in a comfortably worn pair of jeans and nothing else that Fraser could see. Ray folded one arm behind his neck and draped the other over his forehead.

He was probably shading his eyes from the morning light, which slanted into the room through the open drapes, turning the edges of Ray’s hair the color of summer wheat, and his skin to golden cream, and his eyes to blue glacier ice.

The vision quite took Fraser’s breath away.

Fraser approached the couch, but there was no room to sit unless he asked Ray to move over, and he wouldn’t do that, not when Ray looked so relaxed, possibly even indolent. It was Saturday, Ray's day off, and it was lovely to see him like this, Fraser thought. Lovely in more than one sense, indeed.

So Fraser perched carefully on the end of the coffee table. It was mostly clear, Ray’s coffee mug and magazines and wooden turtle having been put away earlier in a surprising but welcome display of tidiness that Fraser suspected Ray had orchestrated mostly to, as he put it, mess with Fraser’s mind.

And now Fraser sat on the clean coffee table with nowhere to look but at his partner, who peered out from under his arm with exceedingly bright eyes.

No doubt teasing Fraser again.

If he only knew precisely _how_ he was teasing him, Ray might choose another course of action.

Fraser aimed for reasonable in his response. “Well, I don’t actually know that I want to, Ray. What if I don’t…er…what if I don’t like it?”

Ray shrugged his bare shoulders. “It wouldn’t be the end of the world.” Then he coughed. “Except for how it kind of might be. Uh, but we'd get through it. We always do, right?"

Fraser couldn’t help smiling at that, just a little. “Yes, we seem to.”

“Seriously,” Ray said. “You don’t like it, we stop, we don’t try it again. I go do it on my own if I really want to do it, which probably…you know.” He moved his hand down to scratch his neck, and Fraser couldn’t help himself, he simply watched Ray’s lean pectorals and his extraordinarily firm deltoids and biceps moving under the skin.

It was a good thing breathing was an involuntary action, because Fraser would have forgotten to do it otherwise.

“Yeah, probably I’d just forget about it,” Ray went on. “I mean, I don’t want to go do it with Turnbull or nothing. Or, God forbid, Thatcher. Stella don’t give me the time of day no more, going with some stranger is just asking for trouble, and by myself, that’s just pathetic. You gotta admit.”

Fraser tilted his head noncommittally. “Possibly. Although in the far north people don’t always have the luxury of a companion when they…”

Ray chuckled. “Yeah, yeah, well, you’re in Chicago now, Fraser. And you got a partner. And so do I, so that’s why I’m asking you. Makes sense, right?”

Fraser sighed. “Well, all right. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt too much. Or, as you say, if it does we can just stop and go do something else.” Privately, he thought that it would be more of a problem if Ray didn’t like it, because Fraser was, after all, quite accustomed to focusing his mind on other things when subjected to pain or tedium, but Ray was not.

Ray grinned, sat up, and stretched, his arms and legs and chest taut and beautiful and strong, and dear lord, how would Fraser survive this morning and afternoon, whether they did it or whether they didn’t?

He attempted to collect his scattered wits. “All right, then. When would you like to…?”

“No time like the present, Benton-buddy. Just let me go, um.” He gestured toward his bedroom. “You know. Let me get ready, and then we’ll get started.”

“Very well. I’ll wait here for you.”

“Okay,” Ray said calmly, though how he could be calm about this prospect Fraser wasn’t sure. It might, after all, entail the end of the world if the rumors were to be believed.

Then Ray stood and stretched some more, and it was a good thing that he turned his back after just a moment and headed toward the bedroom, because Fraser was abruptly hard in his own jeans and there was nothing for it but to stand and stretch out as well, possibly even loosen his belt a notch to ease any constriction from above.

Just outside his bedroom door, Ray stopped and rested a hand on his rolltop desk. He turned halfway around and threw a glance over his shoulder at Fraser, his eyes shining again and the deep grooves of his dimples curving teasingly. Fraser could not, would not stare at the way Ray's jeans barely clung to his lean backside. “Everybody says it’s great, you know. You’re gonna love it, partner.” Then he shrugged. “Okay, well if you don’t, at least you’ll still love _ me_.”

“Oh, yes,” Fraser said without thinking. “That I will.”

Ray’s smile was as sudden and beautiful as the first glint of sunrise over a clear, icy horizon. Fraser had seen that smile before, accompanied by other words, all different, that all seemed to have the same meaning, regardless: _Do you find me attractive?_ and _I love you, Fraser_, and countless other phrases that showed with absolute clarity what Ray meant, if only Fraser had the willingness to hear. And Fraser thought—no, he _knew_—that Ray understood, after all, exactly how he was teasing Fraser, understood Fraser’s response, and welcomed it. Everything was, after all, going to be all right. They’d have time later to talk, and perhaps more.

And suddenly, to his distinct surprise, Fraser realized he wanted nothing more than to go see _Heroes of the Zombie Apocalypse_ this afternoon with Ray after all.

♥ ♥ ♥

**Author's Note:**

> Ficlet written for More Joy Day, January 2010, to akamine_chan's request for: Fraser/RayK, Ray barefoot, shirtless and in jeans, because she loves him that way.


End file.
